Skyzoo done did it again.
Ever since The Salvation was released in 2009, Skyzoo has continuously hit us with amazing projects on a yearly basis. Yeah, that’s over a decade’s worth of quality albums. Consistency is an understatement.
Now, after hitting 2020 with The Bluest Note and Milestones, the Brooklyn-bred emcee is back once again with his next album, All the Brilliant Things, dropping June 11th via Mello Music Group.
“My music has always been a combination of a few things: storytelling, motive, and reflection,” Sky says. “I tell stories that speak on the motives of those I grew up with and why they’re such, and then reflect on how those things impacted us all, both my inner circle and subconsciously, the listener.
“With ‘All the Brilliant Things,’ the idea was to truly try and tackle the realities of gentrification and this new era of cultural appropriation, commonly known as ‘culture vulturing.’ The way they intertwine with one another, parallel at times, and how us as the residents of our long standing homes and creators of these cultures have been stripped of it, or at times let it happen, and even in some cases sadly helped it happen, all for what we assumed was our best interest.
“The irony of it all is, despite how it all makes us feel in hindsight, one would have to admit that the orchestration of it was truly brilliant. Brutal, and heinous, but somehow pretty brilliant. Hence the title of the album.”
To help kick off the campaign, Skyzoo has shared a video for the album’s lead single, the Rashid Hadee-produced “Bed-Stuy Is Burning” featuring the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, which was inspired by a novel of the same name by Brian Platzer that told the story of a white couple living in Bed-Stuy and how the neighborhood works around them and what they encounter.
“Intrigued by the title, I copped it and afterwards I was inspired to write sort of a call and response, speaking on the other side of the fence from what Brian saw being white and living in the Stuy with his family,” Sky says. “As someone who was in the neighborhood before the characters in his story moved in, I wrote the song to be the other end of the spectrum.”
Check it out below and keep scrolling for the album’s tracklist; which takes it back to the good ol’ vinyl and cassette days with dual sides – and features from BJ the Chicago Kid, Blakk Soul, Raheem DeVaughn, and a few others.
